Influence of polypropylene fiber on early strength of self-compacting concrete

Abstract

One of the development of concrete technology in construction’s world is Self-Compacting Concrete. Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is an innovative concrete that able to “flow” and condensed by gravity and its own weight with little vibration or even without a vibration device at all. However, these concrete still have deficiencies like general concrete that is weak to tensile. To increase the tensile strength of the concrete is by adding fiber into the mix. One type of fiber that can be used as an additive to the mix is Polypropylene fibers. This study aims to determine the effect of adding polypropylene fibers to the mechanical properties and characteristics of SCC concrete and to know the optimal polypropylene fiber content in the manufacture of Self Compacting Concrete. Fiber addition variations are 0 kg / m3; 0.25 kg / m3; 0.5 kg / m3 and 0.75 kg / m3. The result of the research showed that the variation of 0.5 kg / m3 and 0.75 kg / m3 addition of fibers didn’t fulfill the requirements to be categorized as a SCC concrete. The results of hard concrete test showed the highest compressive strength that is on the SCC PP concrete of 22.31 MPa at the age of 1 day and 46.24 at the age of 28 days. The highest strength is on the SCC 0.25 PP concrete of 6.52 MPa at the age of 1 day and 10.07 at the age of 28 days. The highest flexural strength is on the SCC 0.25 PP concrete of 6.76 at the age of 1 day and 8.60 at the age of 28 days.